October 13, 2009

The Perfect Fall Risotto

I mean I love, adore, would marry bacon, pumpkin and risotto - all individually. But mix them together and heaven help me I've found my soul mate and it's on my plate!

I made this a few weeks ago and I can't wait to make it again already.

I didn't follow a recipe to make this but just kinda winged it. And I must say it was FAB!

It was a great way to use up a gallon bag of cut up pumpkin in my deep freeze and a great way to use my ever faithful strips of bacon that I freeze in to sets of 4.

Pumpkin & Bacon Risotto

Heat oven to 400 and place diced pieces of pumpkin in a roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt, and nutmeg and pepper.

In a saucepan, heat 1 large can of chicken stock along with about a quarter cup of sherry or white wine.

In a large skillet, cook 4 slices of bacon and remove from pan when crispy brown and set aside to drain. Go ahead and chop them up and set them aside to stir in later. Using about a T of the remaining bacon grease, saute 1 cup of risotto rice and 1 onion diced, and a couple of cloves of minced garlic.

When the rice starts to get browned, start adding the stock in by ladle full and stir constantly. Keep adding liquid in batches and stirring until the rice is cooked.

Once the rice is done, add in your cooked diced pumpkin. It will break down a bit and that's more than fine. You can use canned pumpkin too if that's easier for you.

Season to taste- salt, pepper, nutmeg.

Top your risotto with bacon pieces (you can also stir it in if you'd like)

Now unlike most people, I did not add cheese to this risotto recipe, the pumpkin is rich and creamy enough - as is the bacon - that you don't need it!